Upon initial inspection the packaging is very well designed and set out, with a 'sneak-peak' flap situated on the top of the box to show off the al-a graphic card look-alike 'dust-cover' for want of a better description, which actually acts as sound insulation for the board.

ASUS have also chosen to mount lights on the rear for easier connection during those dark sessions scrambling around the back of the computer. In theory this is wonderful, however funnily enough ASUS have omitted what the colours correspond to from their instruction literature; I'll give them points for making the effort though, and it just looks down right cool.

Installation is just like any other PCI card that might have found its way into your system; plug the card in, reboot and run the drivers, not difficult even for the not so computer literate amongst us. Then it's a simple case of connecting whatever speaker system is available to the rear of the card and run the control panel for the first time to dial in your specs (2.1/4.1/5.1/7.1channel etc.) then you're on your merry away.

Onto the control suite provided with the card; we are given a well set out control panel encompassing all of the features built into the card. There's only one complaint here, lose the master dial ASUS; it's sticky, awkward, too big and simply not necessary. Apart from that, top marks for installation. In a word the control suite is concise.

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